The U.S. is stuck with the most anti-business, anti-domestic energy, anti-growth, anti-jobs President in its history. And despite the fact that UNEMPLOYMENT rate is miraculously(corruptly) dropping in spite of the fact that there isn't enough job growth to drop it, the U.S. economy is headed straight into recession. As the Presidential debate this past Wednesday showed, the only way to get recovery in the U.S. is to get rid of the biggest obstacle to recovery (Obama)in November.

And unfortunately we are stuck with americans, as everything you believe in is in exact opposition of what most people in the world believe in. Does that imply that one day, the world will have to deal with the USA in the same way, you deal with the current president of the USA to manifest publicly how much disdain many people worldwide have for the neoconservatives american movement. Your comment is sickening, as you are propagating hatred for mankind. Now go wonder, why we have terrorist in the world, as there is no room to negotiate with extremist of your kind.

The Global Economy - Already In Deep Recession
The Central Banks, particularly FED Bernanke and his now protege, Draghi mastered the art of Evolution of Corruption at The Federal (Global) Level.
Hold interest rates down, flood the market with dollars and currency, create inflation, and stock markets go up magically while the rest of the "hard asset" economy decreases.
This is Monetary corruption at its worst.
In the United States, the FEDs QE3, timed perfectly for Presidential elections equally corrupt and suspicious.
When I was in College trying to pay for tuition, I opened a Painting Contracting Business. I interviewed a painter one day and asked how long he felt it would take to paint a room. He said "if I wash the walls and then paint, it will take me two days and last for 6 years but if I just paint over the dirt, I can fool the customer and it will take just one day to paint but only last for one year."
FED Bernanke and Draghi are just painting over the dirt to create the wealth effect and the good feel stock market. But soon, the dirt will start to cause the economy to crack and thus, after the elections, expect a huge stock market crash.
Warmest,
Richard Michael Abraham
Founder
The REDI FoundatIonwww.redii.org

A political leader in a state is playing a role like that of a captain in a plane or a ship,so he/she should be highly skilled at choosing the path to the destination and stay calm on the journey.If anything wrong on the way, he/she should detect it and change the course. It is pathetic that the politicians do not know where they will lead people to go. It is a pity that the politicians do not even know what is wrong with the state. The president of Taiwan has been in dither for 5 years.

1. Excessive consumption, boosted by the "Consumption led growth" policy
2. Deviation from wise investment
3. Unlimited & reckless bailouts
4. Lack of good entrepreneurship in the market
5. Deviation from education
6. Badly aimed education policies, that are unable to meet skill shortages
7. Dishonesty & crime
8. Lack of ethics
9. Huge wealth disparities such as in India where both unimaginably rich & poor live
10. Too much Socialism such as in the Japanese society
11. Too much faith in advanced financial tools such as stock options, where strategy is considered to be much more important than the quality of the underlying investments
12. Prolonged wars
13. Israel's violations of U.N guidelines regarding their borders, threats of wars etc
14. Trade policies restricting the imports of used equipment such as buses & trucks from countries such as Japan (which throws away equipment after 10 years), by non manufacturing countries such as Sri Lanka
15. Bad leadership in Western countries, non support to good leaders, people taking ignorant attitudes towards politics
16. High focus on public speaking & acting skills, while being ignorant towards the contents
17. Too much faith in experience, lack of respect for intelligence & education
18. High pride & over confidence in the west & Japan
19. Society recklessly respecting Power & money while completely ignoring honesty & decency
20. Under appreciation of work effecting large numbers of people, such as research & publications
21. Under appreciation of work of high responsibility, underpaying Politicians (lower than say, prostitutes)
22. Immigration policies that favor dishonest & unethical people such as terrorists
23. Lack of knowledge of rich foreign investors to invest in developing countries, sometimes over caution & under caution
24. Repatriation of capital restrictions faced by foreign direct investors
25. Non reduction of minimum wages
26. High debt by the government, companies and the people
27. Irrational land policies & practices, such as growing vegetables close to Tokyo & railway stations in other areas instead of utilizing land for commercial & residential purposes effectively reducing rents, housing & building prices
28. Irrational foreign currency policies, such as the over valued Japanese Yen and Australian dollar inflicting bankruptcies in export industries
29. Insufficient lending by Japan, Australia to troubled friends and fast growing countries which would have effectively reduce their over valued currencies while keeping the world's finances healthier
30. Insufficient initiative by the people & companies to thrive to achieve growth, too much blame and expectations from governments
31. Almost all economic policies aimed at telling governments what to do, with almost nothing telling companies and people to do.

Come on. Either investors have to beware because developed country governments will stop piling on the debt and printing money to keep the game going. Or they have to beware because they will continue to do so.

The decision to run up the debt in the first place was the decision that mattered. What investors have to be where is that they will share the fate of labor. What younger people have to fear is that they won't.

There's too much money out there that's doing nothing but sitting around. The banks are awash with cash, but they won't lend to anyone. Say hello to the New Financial World Order. We're all headed for this: http://youtu.be/xJVhDImLbiM

Rising share prices only look odd if you think money-printing isn't coupled to price levels.
Our money supply (dollars, pounds, euros - it doesn't matter) is expanding through the creation of more debt. That's the definition of QE.
It's like the landlord who says, "Well, my tenant didn't pay last month or the month before, but they agreed to a 10% rent increase. Now I have IOUs that are worth 10% more, so I can afford to buy another unit to rent out." If the tentant is broke, it doesn't matter what he promises to pay, because the IOUs are worthless. Governments, individuals, and families are still spending like the IOUs will be repaid in full, but the system is FLOODED with them, there are too many to repay at current purchasing power.
They _will_, however, get repaid at a discount, a.k.a. price inflation. There's no free free lunch with money-printing, and the more people realize this, the faster prices will rise.

There is continuing speculation that Greece will have to leave the Euro. Although pro-bailout parties won a narrow victory in the general election, many analysts feel that the result has merely delayed, not dispelled, the prospect of Greece's exit from the single currency. The new Greek government will need to follow the programme of cuts agreed with other Eurozone governments and the International Monetary Fund. Otherwise, it will receive no more bailout loans, it won't have the money to pay its debts, the Greek banks will probably go bust, and the European Central Bank may be forced to cut Greece loose from the euro. What would this mean for Greece and the rest of Europe? I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

thanks to the power transition rehearsal in china, the speculators can do nothing but wait and see until this novermber. as a result, there's no radical rise or fall in the demostic stock markets. and the land prices and house prices stop surging. maybe after this economic tranquility, we could looking forward to the wiser chinese policies.

The strength of the OECD (especially US and Europe) economy is based on a fraud. To prompt economic recovery from World War Two, the axis of evil (US, Europe and Japan) undertook an exercise in round tripping of trade. Circular trades were entered into with out the backing of actual goods / services / money and then scrapping the gold standard for pushing economic powers the OECD way.

Round tripping does NOT go round and round forever– all it needs is a break in it’s path and every thing starts collapsing…And we are seeing that happening in the US and Europe. It will not be so drastic in Japan since it has already absorbed the losses in the lost decade.

Current model of development is simply not sustainable. Ecological degradation and global warming are the greatest arguments against the present system. We have to choose between green future and modest living on the one hand and excesses and luxuries on the other...

Some Economist prophets like Gordon Chang, John Chanos etc. have been predicting the Collapse of China for a long time. However in fact, the Collapse of world's big three economies is imminent led by the PIGS.

"We should not have allowed Europe and other western countries to lose their economic prowess " So are you saying we should work to reverse globalization or it should have never happened in the first place. Second are u saying it is ok for people in developing countries to remain in poverty and not rise to the middle class at the expense of Europeans and westerners even though the same Westerners benefit from the rise of said developing countries. Please if you may elaborate

Economic collapse is imminent as demand collapse when Governments everywhere have been hard at work to engineer the greatest transfer of wealth from the 99% piggy occupiers to their crony 1% Plutocrats with massive printing to bailout and giving free money to Banksters to speculate and gamble on anything from food on the table to CDO derivatives.

I appreciate your comment to my brief comment on an enormously complicated issue. I am myself from a developing country and I have widely travelled in at least 23 African countries and many times to Asia including India which I have visited at least some 20 times. What I have always believed in is that we need to have synergy between developed and developing countries and people in poor countries ought to have a much better deal. I have seen poor farmers in the Ivory Coast selling a basket full of pineapples for less than a dollar while in my country it costs a dollar to buy one. I am distressed at such squalor. But what we need in a globalised world is a coherent, synergistic and fair deal. But politicians and tycoons in each country are bothered only about themselves and the people are just sheep. Sometimes I feel like writing a new version of Animal Farm to reflect our current realities. However what is happenning, basically, is that business people in the rich white collar job countries, for the sake of quick short term gains, are transfering their manufacturing companies to Asian countries thereby depriving their middle to lower income group of millions of jobs and high quality products. These myopic kind of vision is skewing Europe, skewing the world economy, jeopardising the chances of having a steady state world economy(the ideal kind of globalisation which you probably meant), thus leading to the economic chaos looming ahead. I hope you get the point. Thanks

Rich world is keeping developing world in debt and perpetual servitude, barely able to care for themselves, dependent on food and medical aid.

By this we are stiffling the potential of the developing countries, at our peril. Right now we expend effort on suppression in order to extract cheap resources. But it would be wiser to let the third world realize its potential, so that it has something to offer back to us, on equal terms.

I red your comments and while I disagree with your sharp words (he 99% piggy occupiers to their crony 1% Plutocrats with massive printing ), in the FUNDAMENTAL, the one thing that really matters I completely share your view .
Europe collapse is starting to show the face, what will happen when France starts struggling to join the periphery? ... crisis and record debts ? nice mix .
And what will happen with world currencies in the middle of economic collapse? thats a new problem : currency wars. And how this huge indebted countries, with emerging powers stronger than ever (and willing to maintain their status ) are suppose to return the growth path?? they will , but they'll suffer a lot . And what about a petrowar in the whole process ? these are hard financial times.

You are right and one could add many other woes, arms sales to poor countries, roles of international agencies, Africa being a cemetry of projects etc etc. I agree with you and you can see we are living a running away world where most of us and our children have a lot to lose.

I like this article on the threat of a global recession and I quote "In different ways, politicians’ actions (or inaction) are the biggest short-term danger facing the American, European and Chinese economies. Judging by politicians’ current behaviour, the world economy could slow a lot further. It could even tip into recession in 2013." However I have been following the world's economic trends like many other intellectuals around the world with the disillusionment within me growing every week, for several years. One criticism i have on this article is that it strongly projects politicians as being primarily behind our economic woes. I don't think so. I don't think they are as intelligent and manipulating as the business community although in recent years they too have been rash with the world's sustainable economic development due to their short sightedness. Basically I analyse the world worsening financial trends as follows. The more countries like like China, India, Indonesia and the others expand their economies, through the deliberate action of western businessmen the worst will the world economy become. The ultimate situation will be a global economic implosion and a lasting world recession from which the recovery will be very painful indeed. We should not have allowed Europe and other western countries to lose their economic prowess. After all there will always be one cake, a gigantic one though, which the world will always have to share. If it is owned by the poorest while concurrently with the former rich getting poorer and poorer over a relatively short period of time (say 10 years or so) we would be making the workd economy so skewed and disrupted that we would jeopardise the future generations more than global climate change would ever do. In this long term enduring disaster scenario the business people to a large extent and the politicians to a lesser extent would be the main instigators of the decadent world economic environment.

The increase in global trade has given more opportunities to everyone everywhere to grow their own economic pie. Indeed the economic plight of the piggies in Europe is caused more by Politicians and Bureaucrats in Brussel who are propping out Too Big to Fail zombie banks which had made some bad lending decision rather than allowing the free market mechanism to take care of such failures.

The strength of the OECD (especially US and Europe) economy is based on a fraud. To prompt economic recovery from World War Two, the axis of evil (US, Europe and Japan) undertook an exercise in round tripping of trade. Circular trades were entered into with out the backing of actual goods / services / money and then scrapping the gold standard for pushing economic powers the OECD way.

Round tripping does NOT go round and round forever– all it needs is a break in it’s path and every thing starts collapsing…And we are seeing that happening in the US and Europe. It will not be so drastic in Japan since it has already absorbed the losses in the lost decade.

To me as you also seem to agree there is a growing socio-economic tussle between government + business(producers+insurance+bankers)on one hand and the people(middle class+ lower income group.Thi is happening not only in Europe but in others also.

"FOR investors around the world, the recovery seems assured. The MSCI global share index has risen almost 10% since July."
This sentence made me laugh ... the truth is that there is no volume , volume levels to stock increase are at record lows... That is called manipulation, most investors are in the sidelines .... no one believe that recovery seems assured, that simply is not the case.

It is said that Profits accrued to Banksters and the financial sector have been growing inexorably to account to roughly 40% of total Profits today. Such rent seeking activities will continue to sap the vitality out of the more productive activities like that of SMEs.

Yup, who'd be stupid to stick their necks into an inflated but dubious situtation?
But it does make the warning a bit silly. Most investors are aware. Nice that TE has caught up to the realisation others made many months ago.

No, an international newspaper applies vigorous independent journalism to investigate and report news. The Economist is an editorialising magazine. Opinion, though it can be interesting, is cheap and easy to produce.

Real problems don't have solutions. We are 7 billion people all hoping for the 1950's to come back. Sovereign countries based on suppression are starting to disintegrate. Mass migrations from the non-viable ones are beginning. There is much biblical wailing and gnashing of teeth. Anyone who votes for a living will be sadly disappointed. Politicians are good at one thing only, smoke and mirrors, they think leadership is figuring out which way the herd is moving and walking two steps in front of it.

If you want to survive the coming collapse of everything you once took for granted, buy a small farm some distance away from the city and learn how to feed yourself without technology. When the lights go out the politicians will be scrambling to save their own skins and your cheque will not be in the mail.

It is a hard choice like a Rock and a hard place to choose between either Revolution or neo-Serfdom under the Plutocratic Political crony system for the young piggies in the West who had only known growing economic freedom and prosperity until today.

Thankfully the hoards in the city have and believe in gun control. Those with guns will have to decide between carrying food and water or ammo when walking to his farm. I highly doubt hungry people are going to carry a 60-80bls pack with full battle rattle and be ready for anything. I highly doubt the city folk will organize into anything usable.

I will suspect other farmers/neighbors in the area will most likely band together, make bio fuel to power the trucks, wind and solar etc.... While history has shown that those in the cities will be rounded up into camps.

Yes, it's back to the Dirty Thirties, with the misguided austerity, collapse of international trade, beggar-thy-neighbor policies via competitive devaluations, etc. I hope we can avoid the worst scenario of the 25% youth unemployment in the USA and 50% in Europe!

Asking the piggies to swallow the bitter pill of austerity without any roadmap for a future return to prosperity is not going to work for the crony Politicians. In fact, the people in the street in Athens, Madrid etc. will take back their own destiny like their cousins, Arab spring bloomers.